In 2002, a group of friends got together to start a LAN game, something common at the time. But what would undoubtedly leave a mark on gamers' minds is a legendary photo of a 'gamer' duct-taped to the ceiling, and 15 years later, its origin has finally been explained.
The Story Behind the Photo
If there is an image that traveled through gaming forums for a long time, it's certainly the photo of the gamer duct-taped to the ceiling. But how did this photo come about? Fifteen years later, the protagonists of that scene explain what really happened.
It was mid-2002. We are in Mason, a city in Ingham County, Michigan, USA. In this small town, a close-knit group of friends grew up who loved building personal computers and organizing LAN parties. The game of the moment was the popular Counter-Strike.
One of the LAN party attendees is Brian Schaeffer, who says they used to gather in various houses and, sometimes, even in a tire warehouse, bringing their computers to play a variety of games. Titles like Command & Conquer, both Renegade and Red Alert 2, as well as Battlefield 1942 (for those with the 512 MB of RAM to run it) and StarCraft were the rage among those young people, but Counter-Strike was the great equalizer. It could run on almost any computer, and everyone had it. But besides playing, they also had other ways to have fun, like the night they duct-taped Drew Purvis to the ceiling.
"It was still early and the LAN had already fractured," says Nick Wellman, another attendee who was present at the gathering. "There were about ten of us there, and we were already playing three or four different games. Tyler was looking around and said: 'I think I can put duct tape on someone and stick them to that beam.'"
At that moment, the teens gathered the necessary supplies, bought duct tape, and Brian, who was the tallest, held Drew while the rest wrapped him in tape. What you see in the now-iconic photo is actually the group's second attempt to keep their friend hanging from the ceiling with duct tape. After about ten minutes, the tape started to loosen at the edges, and Drew asked to be let down.
They reviewed the plan, added pillows, and hung him again. But this time, someone else had the idea of stacking some tables so Drew could play on his computer, giving rise to the legendary photo. Drew lasted about two hours hanging above his companions before coming down, and then he posted the photos on a gaming forum, where they would be etched into gamers' memory for all eternity.
Source: Kotaku
